And here I thought it was Interlude five that was going to be important in this chapter.
Tag: 11.6p2
Huge creatures filled my perception.
Hm.
Huge creatures, or are you tiny?
Could Taylor have accidentally wound up looking from a bug’s perspective, or something like that?
It was hard to say how I knew they were two different creatures, when each of them existed in multiple parallel spaces all at once.
Oh cod. That’s why it’s like remembering something profound she’d forgotten – we’re getting into Karahindiba territory, and it seems Miss Militia was right in guessing that others had also seen similar things but forgotten.
But why is Taylor remembering this now of all times? Or is it legitimately happening again, and she’s remembering because she’s reminded? If that’s the case, she might forget again afterwards.
Countless mirror moved in sync with one another, each occupying the same space, just as solid as the others, differing in how they moved and the worlds they interacted with.
On some level Taylor might just be bringing up the worlds because that’s the best way she knows to describe it, but we do know for a fact that alternate realities are a thing in Worm. We’ve literally had the Undersiders casually watching movies from another world, implied to be almost entirely like ours.
So it’s entirely possible that Karahindiba and its like are literally between worlds, able to choose which ones to interact with at any given time. That would explain how they can appear gradually out of nowhere like a sphere descending into Flatland.
Which I suppose is also a fitting comparison considering that as I reread the original description from Interlude 7, I get the sense that these beings are at least four-dimensional.
Each of them folded, unfolded, expanded and shifted without taking more or less space. I couldn’t wrap my head around it, even as I felt there was something like a pattern there.
If you treat it as a three-dimensional shadow of a 4+-dimensional being, it does make a bit more sense. There is meaning to the incomprehensibility.
My arm smarted where I’d been cut, and my ear throbbed. I swallowed hard, glancing towards the ring, where people lay in heaps, and only two-thirds of the combatants were either injured, unconscious, dead or playing dead.
Yeeah, this is gonna go on a bit longer.
Really, the best case scenario for Taylor & co. regarding Bryce is that he gets knocked out but is otherwise okay. That way it’s pretty much just an issue of picking him up afterwards.
If he wins, against all odds, things are gonna be a bit harder, and if he dies… yeeah, Sierra won’t be happy.
Not that I think she’ll be happy in any outcome once she finds out what Bryce did to her.
Feeling pressured, Senegal reached for his gun, but was forced to duck back and to the side to avoid being bludgeoned by a heavy metal lock one of the Merchants had clipped to the end of a length of chain.
Woah. Got a pretty good makeshift flail, there, buddy.
The follow-up swing knocked his weapon from his hand. Someone else, a stocky man with eyebrows like caterpillars, moved through the gap to charge for me bare handed.
Shit.
Also, “eyebrows like caterpillars” is a great description.
Could be worse. I set my balance and readied to strike with my knives, waiting until he closed in and-
I don’t think this cutting off is a good sign.
I really don’t think it’s a good sign.
And I was somewhere else.
What?
Is Trickster here?
It was like remembering something profound that I’d forgotten. I’d seen this before.
A flashback in-universe, basically?
Whatever this is, it really sounds like powers are involved. But who’s doing it? Caterpillar dude, or someone else? Maybe one of the capes on-stage decided to mess with some of the people in the crowd?
That was the plan, anyways, but sometimes the opponent was too nimble to be taken down, and other times, they delayed Lisa’s people enough that someone could slip through the line and attack one of our less capable combatants, myself included.
Time to fight. Did you bring your knife?
I held a knife in each hand – my combat knife and the one I’d taken when we’d rescued Charlotte.
Oh yeah!
Sweet, we get dual-wielding Taylor.
When I was forced to fight, I avoided lethal strikes. I had a sense of where the major arteries were and avoided them, even when I knew I could make a quick cut at someone’s wrists or neck. Holding back didn’t do me any favors, and I got smashed in the left ear once, struck in the gut and chest a few times, and a nail that was stuck through someone’s makeshift club sliced the back of my upper arm.
Ouch.
Hm. One day she’s gonna fail to fight non-lethally and end up killing someone by accident, isn’t she, creating more guilt for her to deal with?
Still, Lisa’s soldiers afforded me time to breathe. I remained vigilant for any break in ranks and incoming attacks.
At least the formation helps somewhat, then.
We tried to hold a formation, with the bodyguards holding the outer perimeter and the less experienced combatants, myself included, in the center.
Makes sense. I think I’m gonna call this a jawbreaker formation – a hard, thick shell around a squishy gum core.
How many licks does it take to get through the bodyguards?
It quickly became apparent that these things didn’t really hold up in a real combat situation.
Apparently not many.
For one thing, our enemies quickly figured out what we were trying to do and tried to force Lisa’s soldiers to break ranks. They would hang back and throw things, or stay just out of reach as they held weapons at the ready, looking for a moment when our front-line fighters were distracted or otherwise occupied.
Y’know, this isn’t exactly the fight I was expecting to see solid tactical warfare in.
It forced Lisa’s soldiers to move out of formation to deliver with the enemy with a few decisive hits, then back up to close the gap in the line.
I feel like the fact that I feel like I’m watching chess moves in this quote says a lot.
Anyway, Bryce for impact, we’re going back in!
Knock knock.
Who there?
Woo.
Woo who?
I’m happy to see you too! 😀
Knock knock.
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